Exotica by Samuel Erasmus Wolfe
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| The River Volga: thanks to Wikipedia |
Author: Samuel Erasmus Wolfe
Publisher: Not known but printed in 1907
Source book: Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovitch (Rivers of London #7)
Peter Grant is now a Detective Constable (yup, don’t overlook the importance of Detective) and kept very busy learning Greek as well as Latin, and of course all the magic training exercises Nightingale requires.
A copy of Exotica first appears at a Goblin market in Moon Over Soho but there’s a lot more information about this book in Lies Sleeping.
Erasmus Wolfe wrote extensively about genii locorum in his groundbreaking, and at 2,000 pages (it seems Wolfe did a lot of research), wrist breaking Exotica. He theorised that there was an upper limit to the size and power of an individual genius loci, and unlike many of his contemporaries Wolfe provided some facts and figures to back up his theory.
None of the really huge rivers of Europe - the Volga, the Danube or the Rhine - appear to possess a single tutelary deity. Instead there are Rhine Maidens, both a French and a German Mosel/Moselle, and at least 10 recorded gods and goddesses of the Don.
Surely, speculates Wolfe, had the long length of the Volga possessed a single guiding spirit, Napoleon’s invasion of Russia would have foundered before it began.
Then there’s The Role of Magic in Inducing Pseudo-Lamarckism Inheritance also by Samuel Erasmus Wolfe, which includes an argument that exposure to magic could induce changes in an organism which could then be inherited by its offspring. Tragically, before he could finish the book and prove his theory, Wolfe was killed by a shark while taking the waters off Sidmouth.
Also featured is a small yellowing pamphlet called Devil River by Robert Sharp, which tells the sad story of how a group of “gentlemen” from Virginia lured the genius loci of the Yellowstone River in the Montana Territory - the titular Devil - to his doom (and death). They presented him with a red hat box which contained the very spirit of death itself. That’s a thoroughly unpleasant way to carry on: not how any gentlemen I know would behave. Every good river needs a god or goddess. Like Father Thames, or Peter’s girlfriend Bev. Although, obviously you have to bear Wolfe’s Law in mind.
And there’s Bassinger’s First Steps in Effective Combinations.
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| The River Danube: thanks to Wikipedia I was at school with a girl whose brother drowned in the Danube. Isn’t it sad that I can’t remember anything else about her. Mind you, it was about 1965 when she told me. |
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